Monthly Archives: April 2012

Interesting article reviewing the success/failure of OLPC, Nicholas Negroponte’s vision to bring technology to those who could not afford it (available here). So how do they justify calling it a failure? Test scores. Yes, I kid you not. Students using the devices showed no improvement What I found most interesting is some further data going into 1:1 initiatives in Maine and elsewhere:

Five years after Maine implemented a statewide one-laptop-per-student program, with one exception (for writing skills), no measurable improvement in test scores could be found. Evaluations of one-to-one programs in Michigan and Texas showed similarly mixed results.

Many people know my personal philosophy on these programs and projects. While I definitely applaud the OLPC project, getting technology in hands that usually would not possess it, all these 1:1 projects are just a gimmick. Do students always need a laptop in their hands? Do they really need to do math drill and kill using a laptop? Sure, they can do some higher level creative things, but will teachers be ready to do that all day long? Jury is out on that one. My vision is some tablets and laptops/Chromebooks in every class. The students use them when they need them. Imagine that–use when needed as opposed to finding uses for them. That mirrors how all use technology. Don’t start with a solution and come up with a question.

Unless you missed it this week, the big news out of Google besides their earnings report (higher than expected by the way) was the redesign of the ‘dashboard’ for Google+. While many great perks exist within Google+, many note that it has taken awhile to get enough buy in as yet another social network. With these latest updates, however, Google hopes to make it easier to use this and more powerful.

For education and educators, you can really get a lot out of Google+. If for nothing else, the hangouts feature, multiple user web conferences, can allow you to join existing educationally-related groups or start your own. Can you see students using this to collaborate with other students or with subject matter experts? Lots of potential here.

All Your Apps, in One Easy Bar

Then they also moved the main buttons to the left side. So when you need to start a hangout, you can just click on that. Want to see your Profile? Click that. See your Photos or Circles? Yeah, right there in the dock. I like that, keeps everything pretty organized.

So yeah, let’s see how users take to these new updates. Google definitely seems to be expecting users to move toward this more organized layout. Educators can definitely get some traction here with the hangouts and more and more educators just being on Google+.